| Have a Little Faith [Genma & Kakashi] | [Oct. 1st, 2010|04:04 pm] |
[Backstory. Takes place late September, four years post-Kyuubi, the morning following Working by Hindsight]
Sometime between midnight and dawn, before the oil lamp guttered out but after Kakashi and he had both nodded off sitting up and scattered their unfinished game of cards, Genma woke enough to ease his sleeping teammate down onto one of the mattresses, cover him with one drab, scratchy blanket, and then lie down himself, close to Kakashi but not touching him. For a moment he lay on his side, eyes fixed on the stitched, scab-crusted wound on the back of Kakashi's close-cropped head. Fatigue made him tremble, so that every heartbeat felt like the rocking of waves, and sleep soon overwhelmed his exhausted body like an invasion force. It kept him pinned down until well after the sun rose again.
They were both so tapped out that neither stirred, even when the double-locked door opened and three figures entered. It wasn't until Genma felt the sharp prick of a needle inserted into a raised vein in his forearm that his eyes snapped wide. He sucked in a sharp breath, rigid with tension, and found himself on his back, with Kumoto's assistant leaning over him inserting an intravenous line. More terrifyingly, Kumoto himself was on his other side, kneeling next to Kakashi, bandaging Kakashi's burned hand.
Genma's own hands jerked away, but the assistant held grimly on to his arm. "Please don't do that, ANBU-san," she said quietly. "I don't want to have to restrain you."
The paralyzing jutsu they'd used the day before — had they done it to Kakashi? Was he awake but unable to move, while Kumoto painted a fresh seal onto Kakashi's charred skin? But they hadn't immobilized Genma. Why?
"What are you bastards doing?" Genma growled, grabbing for the medic apprentice's throat.
"Genma-san. Please. Try not to be difficult," Kumoto said in the same tone one might scold a vexing child. "Koto-san is starting a five-percent dextrose IV on you, at my direction, so that we can hydrate you and introduce a chakra stabilizer, and I am bandaging your friend's self-inflicted injury." He sucked his teeth in a sound of distaste. "Really, was that necessary? I think not."
The woman's fingers dug into Genma's wrists sharply, scrabbling to keep Genma from choking her.
"Mind his hands, Koto," Kumoto said.
For a moment Genma was sure he was hallucinating.
"Shiranui-san." A female voice, from a person Genma couldn't see. He twisted his head towards the sound.
"Shiranui-san, I'm Sugimoto Miho. Sandaime-sama received your message. You are invited to his home for dinner, as soon as you are well. Please allow the medics to work."
Invited to Sandaime's home for dinner. A code phrase Genma knew in his bones. That could only mean... Genma loosed his hands from the assistant's neck, and she in turn released him. He tried to sit up, but found himself pressed back down as the woman who'd introduced herself knelt next to him and put her hands on his shoulders. She was older — Arakaki's age, maybe — with short, wavy, grey-shot black hair and a handsome face. Her uniform, the dress-grey of Konoha's Intel, was accented with a red braid, denoting her rank and service. At her throat she wore a delicate ruby pendant, that caught the light as she leaned over Genma.
"The Hokage has invited us to dinner?" he asked, not trusting what his senses told him: this was the rescue Kakashi had promised.
"You, Shiranui-san. I'm afraid Hatake-san will have to dine with Sandaime-sama at a later date."
"No. I'm not going without—"
Sugimoto pressed her hand urgently against Genma's shoulder, flickering code against his skin. A command: stand down. "Are both men stable?" she asked Kumoto.
"They will be, if Genma-san lets my assistant start that IV line."
"What have you done to Kakashi?" Genma demanded, ignoring the Intel woman's order and struggling to rise again.
"He's fine. He's merely asleep, Genma-san." Again there was a note of chiding from Kumoto.
"Wake him up, please," said Sugimoto. "And please continue with that medication for Shiranui-san. Shiranui-san, please allow them to continue."
Surreality compounded upon surreality. The assistant moved back in with her needle, Sugimoto pushed Genma flat with far more strength than it seemed such a slender woman might possess, and Kumoto's hands, glowing green with chakra, touched Kakashi's temples. Genma arched his back and kicked, the assistant jumped back, Sugimoto's press became a restraining hold.
And Kakashi opened one drowsy grey eye. |
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